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The store is exactly as it sounds. Day in, day out, every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, its bright fluorescent lights illuminate the bleak city block it calls home. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, it is open and ready for business. The quiet pervasiveness of the humming light fixtures echoes off the walls. It is a small space, packed to the brim with every variation of manufactured enjoyment. Alarmingly orange crackers, wine stored in cardboard, candy whose packaging boasts its questionably legitimate fruit flavoring, the whole nine yards. This is, after all, a place of convenience. It is primarily built on availability, not quality. The cashier stands dormantly, dusty elbow leaning on a suspiciously sticky countertop. She’s barely entered high school and needed a summer job. Daydreams float behind her eyes through her perpetual eight-hour shifts.
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there are far more pleasing shopping experiences in this town. The green neon sign above this forgettable bodega’s door is no match to the glowing Starbucks logo across the street. And yet, on this quiet July night, he decides to come inside. The familiar little bell above the door jingles a warning cry. Really? the cashier thinks. It’s almost three-thirty. What’s this guy up to? The boy, no older than the average college student, has come here alone. He is not looking for anything specific—or so he believes. He flashes his most awkward, compulsory smile at the young girl half-asleep at the counter and begins to browse. His eyes dart from one product to the next, the pretzels and chocolate and gummy bears twinkling at the prospect of his fleeting attention. At the very end of the aisle, he notices a small bin of produce, presumably the excess from a long day of customers.
Although it is always open, it’s rare for a living, breathing customer to come into the store this late at night.
Tonight is a nice night, he thinks. No harm in treating myself.
Among the organic grocery stores and high-end candy emporiums,
No harm, he says. I would like you to remember that he said that.
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